Zen made many batches of Rainbow Eggs. He gave two to Oritha and two to Sasha, who would deliver them to the two other party members. Akiko was busy stalling the basilisk, but she had terrible news to share. Tracer was now petrified, and while he was still ‘alive’ in the guild, the teen was now a rock. Just a little smash, and he would die.

Zen became more frantic as Akiko reported a mission failure to keep the basilisk busy. While the plan to weaken the basilisk worked, Johan enraged the basilisk into madness and was now dying slowly somewhere after the basilisk’s powerful headbutt. Nobody cared about him, but without that nuisance to keep the basilisk busy, the boss monster changed its target.

“It’s my fault,” Akiko reported the party chat. “Tracer saved me, but he’s under a petrification curse now. We’re retreating, but the basilisk is badly hurt now.”

Zen listened to the Death Princess and reassured her that it would be alright.

“Please come to the kitchen first,” he told the guild master and was about to retrieve one of the Rainbow Eggs from Oritha when it slipped from his hands, cracking on the table into a mess.

Zen cried at the waste, but the Amazonian only laughed. There was no use crying over spilt milk. Moreover, this Rainbow Egg looked like it would be delicious.

“Why not cook it?” she asked. “Save some for me. I will hunt that basilisk and be back.”

Zen took her suggestion, and Sasha looked at him weirdly, unsure if she should leave. Eventually, Zen urged her to leave and find Liu Feng quickly because Akiko was around the corner, and he could hear the basilisk’s screams getting further.

When Zen was alone again, he washed the pan and put new batches of the Rainbow Egg mixture into the oven. The more, the merrier in this case, and as he worked, Zen wondered if this Rainbow Egg could be used as a healing item after it was cooked.

Akiko appeared breathless after bursting through the kitchen. Zen did not miss a beat and took the petrified teen from her hands. Tracer was heavier as a statue than he was as a person and the Death Princess dropped the last batch of black eggs she saved after the massive explosion.

“Here,” she panted. “The last batch. No more black eggs will spawn in the library after I deactivated the device, and most of them were used to blow the basilisk up and take Johan out of the picture. Tracer’s not dead yet, but he’s in a very fragile condition.”

Zen observed the statue. It was cold to the touch, and the cook didn’t think this was good.

The rainbow omelette sizzled in Zen’s pan, and the cook quickly went back to attend to it. He finished the omelette dish off with a sprinkle of black pepper and moved it to a new plate. As a cook, it was only right to taste test.

[You have eaten a Rainbow Egg. You have discovered a Petrification Cure. Please refer to the updated Egg Encyclopaedia.]

Almost at once, Zen retrieved the window from his egg encyclopaedia.

===

[Rainbow Egg]

Points: 1,000

Abilities: Can tame the Basilisk.

Other Information: Can only be crafted by following the recipe.

6 white egg wings

5g of black egg gunpowder

2 yellow egg yolks

2g green egg membrane

2g blue eggshell

10 red egg legs

Special effects: Can become a cure for petrification when cooked.

===

Zen was thankful he did not boil this egg. It would be very hard to smear this on the statues otherwise.

“Watch my Rainbow eggs,” Zen told Akiko, who was looking better now after wolfing down two scrambled eggs.

The Death Princess watched as her advisor took the plate of cooked Rainbow eggs and smashed it on the statue. Her eyes widened in disbelief. Shouldn’t chefs be particular about food wastage? Also, that was a Rainbow egg! Even if Zen did not want to eat it all, he should have tried turning it into points!

The moment Zen smashed the egg onto Tracer’s statue, the petrification curse wore out and parts of the statue crumbled away much like an unnecessary layer of skin. The revived tactician gasped in horror as he was unfrozen in time.

“B-basilisk?” the confused teen asked before collapsing to the floor. Something warm fell from his head, and the Tracer brushed the yellow thing aside in disgust. What was this?

Thrilled that the petrification cure worked, Zen ran back to the oven just in time to hear the timer’s chime. Akiko looked at Tracer in disbelief. This truly was a game. If the curse from the basilisk could be cured using Rainbow eggs, did that not mean it was more valuable than the points it could give?

“Here,” Zen pushed two Rainbow Eggs to Akiko’s hand and looked over to Tracer, who was still trying to gain his bearings. “End this game as fast as you can. I will make more Rainbow Eggs so that we can save all those who were petrified if they’re not dead yet.”

Tracer looked over at Zen with an unreadable expression, but Akiko knew that look. There was a small smile on her lips as Zen busied away with his egg mixture. The oven was already incubating the next batch of Rainbow eggs, and they had no time to lose.

From afar, the basilisk screeched, and Akiko took off quickly with Tracer bowing to Zen, whose back was turned facing him. They would end this game proudly.

Finally alone, Zen looked at all the eggs he had lying around. He had more eggs than he needed and wondered if he would still come in last again if he turned some of them in.

There was still some time before the new batch of Rainbow eggs would be ready from the oven, so Zen started tossing the uncooked eggs into the submission centre. He would leave the cooked eggs there in case anyone needed them later.

The chef toiled away as his party and guild members worked hard to hunt down the angry basilisk. He was so engrossed in his task that Zen failed to notice a huge shadow by the window.